New Black Panther Report Confirms: Politics Over Law at Obama Justice Department

The final version of the Interim Report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the investigation of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case was released yesterday and is available on the commission’s website. Get it while it’s hot.

With the expiration of the terms of several commissioners, new appointees by President Obama and others doing the administration’s bidding will soon control a majority of the commission seats. It seems unlikely the new majority will continue the investigation into the real reason for the dismissal of the NBBP lawsuit.

Given the raucous and obstreperous behavior of the Democratic commissioners, with the unfortunate help of Vice Chairman Abigail Thernstrom, to stymie the investigation and protect the Obama administration, it is also almost a sure bet that nothing further will be done to investigate the sworn testimony about the hostility to race neutral enforcement of civil rights laws at Justice that the Commission uncovered, or the unlawful stonewalling by the Department of the Commission’s investigation.

The Commission’s report is devastating, particularly the statements of Commissioners Todd Gaziano (with whom I work at Heritage), Gail Heriot, and Peter Kirsanow, and their rebuttals to the nonsubstantive, almost comical dissent of Democratic Commissioners Michael Yaki and Arlan Melendez. Also worth reading is a post on the report of the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin., as well as comments by former Justice Department lawyer J. Christian Adams.

As Commissioner Gaziano says in his statement that is included in the 210-page report, the Commission’s investigation was about a possible cover up of a:

racial double standard in law enforcement in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The usual Washington refrain is that the cover-up is always worse than the original offense. But in this case, the underlying problem may be as damning as the wrongful cover-up – and possibly worse….[Justice Department lawyers testified] that there is a pervasive hostility to the race-neutral enforcement of the civil rights laws….Such a racial double standard in law enforcement would be at war with the very notion of a federal Civil Rights Division devoted to the equal protection of the laws. Yet, the Department of Justice is unquestionably hostile to any serious investigation of these allegations.

The dissenting commissioners make the false claim that there was no evidence to support any of the allegations, disregarding and ignoring the sworn testimony of two Justice Department whistleblowers and numerous other witnesses. But as Jennifer Rubin succinctly points out for the Washington Post, the report shows that”

1) [T]he New Black Panther Party case brought by career Justice Department employees was meritorious on the law and the facts; 2) there is voluminous evidence of the Obama administration’s political interference in the prosecution of the New Black Panther Party case; 3) there is ample evidence that the Obama administration directed Justice Department employees not to bring cases against minority defendants who violated voting rights laws or to enforce a provision requiring that states and localities clean up their voting rolls to prevent fraud; 4) the Justice Department stonewalled efforts to investigate the case; and 5) vice chairman Abigail Thernstrom has, for reasons not entirely clear, ignored the evidence and tried to undermine the commission’s work.

One of the most intriguing pieces of evidence concerned Obama’s political appointee, Julie Fernandes, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, who ordered career staff not to bring any Voting Rights Act cases against minority defendants, no matter how egregious their violations of the law, and no cases under a part of the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to clean up their voter registration rolls. Vice Chairman Thernstrom expressed her doubt that Fernandes would be foolish enough to say such a thing publicly at Justice, despite two different witnesses confirming it. Yet as Commissioner Heriot points out, while employed by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights before she even got to the Holder Justice Department, Fernandes specifically told a “progressive/liberal activist news service” that the Voting Rights Act “was written to protect black people.”

Commissioner Peter Kirsanow summarizes what this whole report is all about when he says that it “raises troubling questions that strike at the heart of DOJ’s fidelity to the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee.” With regard to the Department’s lack of cooperation with the Commission’s investigation and its refusal to comply with subpoenas for witnesses and documents, Kirsanow expresses his frustration at a Justice Department that “tried to cultivate the public appearance of cooperation,” while doing the exact opposite: “engaging in a degree of stonewalling and obstruction inexplicable for an agency professing clean hands.”

The worst thing about this report is the way in which the dissenting commissioners engage in McCarthyite-tactics to convince the public to discount the findings by personally attacking the career lawyers from Justice, Chris Coates and Christian Adams, who came forward to testify, defying the orders of their superiors at the Justice Department. Because these commissioners are unable to raise any valid questions about the substance of the critical report, they malign, disparage, and belittle these courageous whistleblowers. It is a prime example of just how much into the gutter some people in Washington are willing to go for partisan, political gain.

But read the report for yourself and make your own judgment – because it probably won’t be highlighted by the mainstream media, which has in large part studiously ignored (with the exception of some belated Washington Post print stories – and Jennifer Rubin’s outstanding new blog column) one of the worst examples of lawlessness and politicalization of the law enforcement duties of the Justice Department that has ever occurred. But even that may change if House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith conducts hearings into the matter. Stay tuned.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. Read his research.

Racism is not tolerated in this country's leadership! bias is not tolerated in this country's leadership. Discrimination is not tolerated in this country's leadership.

Leadership (beyond our control) can't respect us too be equally human it is deliberately attempting to build resentment amongst us and I DON'T LIKE IT! Accountability is necessary and reprimand required. Equal protection under the law! Get rid of those that do not see us equally human. Reprimand and remove! Criminally!

regarding the world:

Where is the "citizen of the world" and why does he have allies that are oppressors of the people? I pray for the good people of Egypt! I pray they win their rightful freedom. I pray for peace and the president to step down. Lots of corruption regarding the leadership of the world! It has to be cleaned up! Obama is supporting it! WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WANT PEACE AND HONESTY and leadership to stay out of our way as they don't pose either one of those interests. God help us!

I believe that Darrel Issa will press forward with this until it is resolved. He does not appear to be the type of man to just let things flounder around while he sits on his butt. He is a true patriot conservative and he is out for a handful of the short and curley. We need to write and encourage him.

[…] is busy suing individual states, yet has no time to prosecute scum like Stephen Lerner or the New Black Panther Party for the violating voting civil rights in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. I guess Obama is still paying back the SEIU officials back who used $27 million of members dues to […]

what do you want? me to agree to your rants? Wow, that is not what I call blogging. You like chicken? HUH? Didn't hear you? You like Chicken, Watermelon, and Social Security payments? You know I know who you are, u just really, really don't get it, do you?

Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times? Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads.

Email address

Ever feel like the only difference between the New York Times and Washington Post is the name? We do. Try the Morning Bell and get the day’s most important news and commentary from a team committed to the truth in formats that respect your time…and your intelligence.